Syrians: A People Of Immense Abilities

The Syrian people are still scarred both physically and psychologically from the impact of the 5 years of crises. The negative impact of the Syrian crises is undeniable to virtually everyone affected. Everything was destroyed with the exception of small oasis cities still striving to maintain their existence as the residents have become reluctant to leave their homes

I would like to focus only on my small community in the capital Damascus, the oldest inhabitant city in the world. The City of Jasmine.

We have endured five years of fighting, not only between inside enemies irrespective of our shared identity (a very shameful fact), but also between foreign countries who came to try their high-tech weaponry or resettle their conflicts with each other.

Highlighted below are some of the repercussions of the Syrian crises

• All resources of Private and Government institutions have been exhausted,


• Inflation rose to its peak,


• Local currency depreciated by about 8 times compared with foreign exchange,


• 50% of Syrian citizens traveled abroad or were forced to migrate,


• And the lack of basic necessities of life such as food, water and electricity.

Certainly, the above must have created a negative and probably pessimistic picture about Syria and you may as well presume that Syria has become so desolate with no living person. On the contrary, above all that has happened to us as a nation, we are able to cope with challenging circumstances as we try to always find alternative strategies to move on in life.

Let me take you on a journey into the infinite capabilities of the Syrian people.

Syrian women have become the sole breadwinners of their families; we had to learn new skills and opened small workshops, private businesses while some worked from their homes. A big example is our small business enterprise for women- Sinnaraty- kindly visit : www.facebook.com/sinnaraty ,for more information.

Sinnaraty is a work group of some marginalized, physically challenged, and poor women. We try to benefit from local resources to make money by doing joint ventures to generate finance by doing Syrian heritage handicrafts like: knitting wool , crocheting, sewing and all Works of art that don’t necessarily require lot of money to start up. We attend local Bazaars and sell our products online.

A second example of our success story is in my community: As an I.T Engineer, I work with a big Hospital at Damascus as a PACS Administrator (Picture Archiving & Communication System). The whole system however collapsed 3 years ago and the company responsible for the system unfortunately went bankrupt. Consequently, we successfully solved 80% of the problems with the help of local engineers and benefiting from online support from the owner vendor.

A third wonderful example was a surgical operation at a big Hospital in Damascus where a Liver transplant was carried out on a 12 year old child. We are excited about this because it was the first of its kind in that region and was carried out by local Doctors with limited resources.

With the above mentioned points, I hope I have been able to project the positive perspectives about who the Syrian people really are. I also hope I have been able to shed more light on all the amazing potentials and capabilities of the Syrian people in spite of the trauma we have faced and still face.

Finally, let our focus be on the positive roles played by the Syrian women towards ensuring the sustenance of Syria by raising their children and developing themselves because they deserve to live.

“Everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end”

-John Lennon